C.U.B.E.

≈ Ch. 20: LOVE ≈

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Who’s Who in this chapter

Kareem, after making love to Lionel, breaks down; Doc Stevens (the hunky resident shrink) helps him revealing something from his past. Back home, Kareem does something that leaves Lance breathless, and then they discover the amazing content of the letter delivered by Lionel.

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~ Love, undeniably ~

Kareem came out of Doc’s bedroom giving no more than a fleeting, uneasy glance at Lionel, still laying disheveled on the bed; in the study, Doc Stevens was waiting for him, and Kareem heavily sat on an armchair, exhaling loudly. In his hands, Kareem nervously held the letter that Lionel had given him, but his mind was reeling too much for wondering about its content. It didn’t take Doc a degree in Psychology to know, from Kareem’s tense expression, that he was on the verge of a breakdown.

“Didn’t you like making love to Lionel?” – he asked, concerned, and Kareem flashed a faint smile: “It was… enlightening. Making love to Lionel came so easy to me, I felt good, I felt 100% man, and I was happy for the joy I was giving to Lionel. Now I have no more excuses…”

“What you mean?”

Kareem’s eyes got wet and he averted his gaze, shamefully: “I… love Lance.”

“This is wonderful!” – Doc commented, but Kareem’s obvious effort to keep a grip on himself alarmed him: “Why loving Lance should make you feel so upset?”

Kareem leapt on his feet and exclaimed with broken voice: “Because it’s not me! I don’t love men! I can’t love Lance! And yet… I’m in love with him! I love him, Doc! Like I love Beverly! Even more, actually! Lance understands me, forgives me, is caring and attentive, he even sacrificed his… career for me! I love him, I can’t deny it anymore, I tried with all my strength not to, but I love him, Doc. I love… a man!”

Kareem’s voice cracked, and Doc quickly rose from his chair to hug him tight, and was not surprised when Kareem started sobbing softly on his shoulder. “Kareem… No matter how powerful your muscles are, no matter how strong your willpower is, love will always prevail. It always finds a way to sneak into your heart. I knew that this moment was coming, and I’m glad you’re here with me. The contrast between the Cube’s lifestyle and your most deeply rooted beliefs was too wide, and in the end you crumbled under the pressure. But this is precisely when you can start rebuilding yourself. Starting with this: you don’t love a man.”

Kareem raised his head and focused his watery gaze on Doc: “I don’t?”

“You love a person, Kareem. Do you really think that people are defined by what they got between their legs? Your heart knows better than your mind. You just told me you love Lance because he’s caring, forgiving, attentive; I didn’t hear any mention of his sexual endowment. Yes, Lance is incidentally a man – and one of the most handsome I’ve ever known, I reckon – but this is just irrelevant. Lance touched your heart, your innermost essence. You can try and put a lid on your feelings, and if you’re strong enough you can even succeed; but I have to warn you: if you close that door, you will lock out the joy, the colors, the laughter, the dreams, the projects… In one word, you will lock life itself out of your heart.”

Kareem stepped away from Doc and sat down on a chair, uncertain: “It’s easy for you to talk like that, Doc. You’re gay! With all your precious books, you can’t understand how I feel!”

Doc Stevens flashed a sad smile and sat down in front of Kareem: “Unfortunately, I know well what we’re talking about. No one knows, here, but outside… I have a wife. I had a wife, anyway. Did you know that a woman can divorce her husband on her own, if he’s taken to the Cube? I’m not really gay, Kareem. I loved my wife, and all the women I knew before her. I loved them… in any possible way. I was curious, though, and this caused my ruin. I’ve touched a man only once, during a threesome with my wife and a friend of mine; but that experience opened my mind, changed my perspective about men and homosexuality, and my wife didn’t like it. She reported me to the Sex Police after less than a month, the AI records supported her claim, and they locked me here for life. And then it took her no more than a month to divorce.”

Kareem looked at Doc with wide eyes. He didn’t expect to get such intimate confidences from Doc, usually extremely reserved, almost mysterious about his past. And sure enough he didn’t expect Doc to have been married to a woman.

“And… if I may ask… what did you do when you arrived at the Cube?”

“I did the same as you: I fought hard, desperately, to preserve my heterosexuality, my integrity. And inevitably I had a breakdown, just like you; only, I had no Doc Stevens to help me. I confess… gosh, I’m so ashamed, now… that I seriously thought of taking my own life. But a wonderful man came out of nowhere, in my darkest hour, and put me back on tracks. He was caring, attentive, sweet and strong, like your Lance, and I fell in love with him. But I couldn’t accept it. Me, loving a man! I wasn’t prepared to that, I didn’t know how to deal with my own feelings, and I took the worst decision of my life. I closed that door, Kareem. The very same door that now is still open in front of you.”

Doc exhaled loudly and sadly shook his head: “I can’t count the times I’ve regretted that decision. That man at first hated me, then forgot me, and went on living his life… unlike me. I only live other people’s life, now, between these four walls. Oh, I’m not a monk, I’ve had my share of male partners, since I’m here, and I greatly enjoy male company; but… no one touches me deep inside. My partners come to me like shadows in the fog, and quickly disappear in the greyness of my life. I’m begging you, Kareem: don’t make the same mistake! You have a fire inside you, you bring light in people’s darkness, don’t let that light fade and die!”

Kareem stared at Doc for a while, after the silence had fallen in the room, and then quickly picked up his phone and started typing on it in earnest. “What are you doing?” – Doc asked, and Kareem wore a sincere smile: “Being sure to keep that door wide open. I love him, Doc… if he still wants me. I treated him like shit for the millionth time, this morning, only because he spent the night out. I desperately hope he’ll forgive me once more…”

“He will” – Doc smiled, standing up and going away, to give Kareem some privacy.

     Ⓚ «Can you forgive a total asshole?»
     Ⓛ «Depends… Who’s the asshole? »
     Ⓚ «Me»
     Ⓛ «Uhm… You’ll have to do penance. Big one.»
     Ⓚ «Flogging, slapping, anything! »
     Ⓛ «Tempting! Come home, and we’ll arrange something 😉

Kareem leapt on his feet with a wide smile and rushed to the living room, where Doc Stevens was waiting for him: “Thanks a million, Doc! I’m going home, I have many things to talk about with Lance. I… I truly wish your door opens again, one day. You deserve it, Doc. No more shadows in the fog.”

“Who knows?” – Doc replied, hugging Kareem – “Hope’s last to die. Now go.”

 

~ Living a true life ~

Kareem entered his living room like a gust of wind, startling Lance. “Oh… hi, Kareem!” – Lance exclaimed, with a cautious smile – “I’m so glad you’re back! Don’t worry, I’m not going to flog you! But… what do you have in your hand?”

Kareem looked down and realized he was still holding the envelope Lionel gave him: “Oh, it’s just a letter…”

“A… letter? Like… the alphabet?”

“What’s wrong with you youngsters?” – Kareem exclaimed, shaking his head with a fatherly glance – “You and Lionel are less than ten years younger than me, and neither of you knows anything of our near past! A letter, a written message. Yes, written on paper! Lionel, the concierge, gave it to me.”

“My god, it must come from outside! Let’s read it!”

“Later” – Kareem replied, placing the letter on the table and sitting on the couch next to Lance – “There’s one thing more important that comes first…”

“Are you crazy? That… er… letter concerns your freedom, your life! What can there be more important than this?”

“I love you, Lance” – Kareem just said, calmly, with a tender smile on his face – “And this is way more important than anything else. I love you. Not like a dear friend, not like a ‘whatever’, I love you like… a man loves another person. I’m in love with you, Lance. I now see it clearly, and I’m ready to say it aloud. Doc Stevens opened my eyes.”

“Doc made a miracle, I’d rather say…” – Lance breathed, hyperventilating, as Kareem’s profession of love was too unexpected, too straightforward and too beautiful to take all at once – “I… I don’t know what to say… Are you sure? You won’t regret it, right? If there’s something that pisses you off, I can change it! If you want to do… or not do something, I won’t complain! I… You…”

“Stop talking” – Kareem said with a low-pitched, seductive tone, and shut Lance’s mouth with a kiss. Not a peck on the lips, not a chaste kiss on the cheek: a deep, hungry, passionate kiss that went on for long, while their tongues danced the sweetest dance, searching each other, twisting and darting all around. There wasn’t the faintest hint of regret in Kareem’s kiss, it was rather full of love, affection, respect and exhilaration, and Lance felt all these feelings clearly, lost into Kareem’s strong arms, and responded with equal passion.

When they parted, at first no one said anything, they just stood on the couch, smiling and looking deeply into each other’s eyes. With their fingers they explored each other’s face as if they were seeing it for the first time.

“I love you, too” – Lance then murmured – “But I bet you already knew it…”

“I was so stupid to pretend it was just a deep friendship” – Kareem admitted – “but those days are gone. It’s so heartwarming hearing you say those words. I love you, Lance.”

“I… I still can’t believe it… I feel like I’m living in a dream… Say it again…”

“I love you, Lance. And to be honest, it scares me shitless. I’m a sturdy man, I’m not easily scared, and yet these three simple words make my knees shake.”

“It’s not the first time you say these words” – Lance said softly, almost afraid to break the magic of the moment – “You must’ve said them to Beverly, you were about to get married…”

“Beverly…” – Kareem replied, with a faraway look – “Yes, I told her that I loved her. And I was sincere. But now I understand that you can’t truly love someone if you’re not truly loved back. And she didn’t love me. Neither did I, anyway. We both were sincerely convinced that we loved each other, but the truth is that we were just perfect for each other, we were both beautiful, successful, admired and envied, healthy and with enough money to live a perfect life. Except it was all fake. An astonishingly beautiful façade that hid an empty room.”

Kareem reclined on the couch and pulled Lance over himself, to better look into his eyes: “Doc said that if I closed this door, I would’ve locked life itself out of my heart, and I felt my knees go weak, realizing that it was exactly what I was doing outside, living my void life with Beverly, having drinks with my fake perfect friends, putting my best energies working in a P.R. firm whose only aim was to make our fake clients look perfect. Here at the Cube I’ve been raped and punished, I had to do a backbreaking manual job, I questioned myself countless times, I lived the darkest moments of my life… but I lived. For the first time I truly lived my life, I met wonderful true people who helped me, shared their lives with me, taught me to be less bigoted and intolerant. And I met you, Lance. You are… the very essence of life, you are the colors, the joy, the warmth, the light. And I know exactly when I first started loving you…”

“You do?” – Lance asked, still finding hard to believe that it all was really happening.

“I do, now. Back then, I wasn’t prepared to acknowledge it. It was when I was arrested, on my early days here, and they ripped the thong you gave me. Seeing that thong in tatters on the floor was heartbreaking. It was nothing more than a tiny piece of fabric, but it was your gift, it was colorful, comfortable, brazen, even outrageous… in one word, it was you, Lance. I loved that thong… because I loved you.”

 

~ The essence of love ~

Kareem pulled down Lance’s face and gave him a long, sweet kiss; and while kissing he effortlessly rose from the couch, holding Lance into his arms, and brought him bodily into his bedroom. When Kareem put Lance down on the mattress and started unbuttoning his shirt with slow, caring movements, Lance looked up at him with wide eyes, almost holding his breath.

Kareem smiled tenderly: “You look like a virgin boy about to make love for the first time…”

Lance swallowed a couple times before uttering a simple “Yes…”

Kareem took his time, undressed Lance and then got naked himself, kissing him on the lips, on the chest, on the navel; and then, concealing a sudden uneasiness, raised Lance’s legs and lowered his mouth on his clean-shaved wrinkled hole. It was something Kareem had never done in his life, either at the Cube or outside, but he was determined to give everything to Lance.

“Ooh… Oooooohh…!!” – Lance moaned softly when Kareem’s tongue tentatively licked around the sensitive hole and then aimed to its very center. Lance’s ears still rang with Kareem’s sweet words, those beautiful, astonishing words of love. And now this. It was almost too much to bear, and Lance felt overwhelmed. He was mostly a bottom, but in bed he always was in charge… until now; now he felt like putty in Kareem’s hands.

He shot a surprised glance at Kareem when he leaned on the nightstand and took the lube that Lance always kept in the drawer: “You… really care for me…”, he murmured, and Kareem smiled: “Didn’t I say that I love you?”

Kareem’s cock was big, and as hard as steel, but Lance’s depths welcomed the thick rod like it belonged there. Lance’s ass was like a velvet glove enveloping Kareem’s manhood, inch by inch; Kareem penetrated Lance slowly, giving him time to get used to his girth, and when he was fully inside, he started rocking his hips with languid movements, easing his cock in and out of Lance’s hole.

“God, don’t stop…” – Lance blurred, totally lost into the exquisite sensations he was feeling; and he realized, not without a little surprise, that it wasn’t only his ass to give him an excruciating pleasure, but also the gentle brush of Kareem’s thighs against his own, the rhythmical pressure of Kareem’s groin over his balls, the amazing sight of Kareem’s tanned body swaying over him. And Kareem’s eyes! Those loving, confident eyes tenderly looking down at him, checking on him to spot any possible expression of discomfort.

“Say it again…” – Lance pleaded, and Kareem’s warm voice was like a caress on his soul: “I love you, Lance.”

Lance couldn’t say whether they went on making love for an hour or an entire day, as time meant nothing. All he knew was that Kareem was clearly putting all his experience in adding pleasure to pleasure, and to make it last as long as possible. But a man has his limit, and Lance was delirious for the sensory overload. “I… mmmhh… I can’t hold back anymore…”

“Then let go, my sweet Lance…”

Kareem leaned down to kiss Lance, and that was the last drop. Both of them shuddered, softly moaning into each other’s mouth, and let their manly juices flow freely, in a liberating, sublime orgasm.

 

~ The higher they climb… ~

They rolled lazily in bed for a while, in silence, enjoying the lingering feeling of the wonderful moments they just lived. But Lance seemed a bit restless, and soon he started playing with Kareem’s thick chest hair, looking at him with a mischievous glance in his eyes.

“Again?” – Kareem asked, a bit worried, as he was feeling totally drained, after the long lovemaking with Lance and the earlier session with Lionel – “I… I don’t think I can do it again so soon…”

“Naah… The letter! I can’t wait to know about its content! Come on, go and take it!”

“Ah!” – Kareem exclaimed dramatically, getting off the bed – “Never a promise of undying love has ever been crushed so cruelly!”

“Stop being a drama queen and open that letter! It must be important!”

With a loving smile, Kareem went to the living room to take the envelope and opened it while going back to the bedroom. Inside there wasn’t a message hand-written on paper, but two printed excerpts from online news sites. On the first one, under a photo portraying Aldrich A. Archer, the article read:

“Billions of people, yesterday evening, watched on 3V the much-awaited press conference of ‘Triple-A’ Archer, the powerful CEO of Neural Wonders, and witnessed him fall under the blows of the argute questions asked by the journalists. He couldn’t deny that under his lead the A.I., including its code and its decision-making skills, have been hidden behind a curtain of secrecy that is causing a growing concern all across the Great Worldwide Union. Archer’s weak claim that the secrecy is due to ‘security reasons’ is not enough anymore for the public opinion, and from many sides is strongly asked to Neural Wonders to fire its CEO and deeply change the course of the A.I. management.

With similar evasiveness, Archer has dodged the pressing questions about Mr. Kareem Bashir, initially reported as dead in a plane crash, but actually detained unlawfully and without any valid reason at the local C.U.B.E.. Archer claimed that he had no information about Mr. Bashir’s fate, but was more than apparent that he knew much more than he was willing to admit.

Neural Wonders has too much on stake, and it’s an easy guess that ‘Triple-A’ is soon going to fall in disgrace. As they say, the higher they climb, the harder they fall.”

The second printed excerpt, rather than an article, seemed a post on the social media by Archer himself. It was clearly posted after the press conference and it read:

“After devoting my entire life to Neural Wonders, and after so many years tirelessly working to the benefit of the entire Great Worldwide Union, the least I could expect was to be fired on the spot like this! But I’m not going to pay for other people’s faults! Who really wants to know about Mr. Bashir’s fate should ask a certain Captain of the Sex Police…”

“Wow” – Kareem commented, taking his breath – “O’Rourke must be shitting his pants by now. And he doesn’t have anymore the document that we took from his hiding place in the Omega-24 block, the handwritten message by Archer containing precise instructions to O’Rourke regarding me. That was his insurance.”

“That document doesn’t make any difference, now” – Lance commented, worried – “because Triple-A is going to fall anyway. Your friend was very clever in riling up people’s reproach against Archer, and to bring up your mysterious disappearance; but apparently things have gone a bit too far, and Archer, now, can’t just take a step aside and save his ass. The only question is whether he will bring O’Rourke down with him or not. Because if O’Rourke stays on his chair, you stay at the Cube…”

“Hmm… You’re probably right. Only time will tell.” – Kareem said, dropping the papers to the floor with an urchin grin – “We can’t do anything but wait. Say, have you any suggestion to kill time?”

“I may have an idea or two…” – Lance replied seductively, pressing his naked body against Kareem’s. He brushed his finger on Kareem’s sensitive nipple and rejoiced in watching his beautiful, dark-skinned cock twitch eagerly.

 

In that very moment, in his office, O’Rourke slammed his tablet on the desk with a worried frown. On the screen, a photo of Aldrich A. Archer looked back at him with a confident, threatening grin.

-~~~≈≈≈ooOoo≈≈≈~~~-

In the next chapter: Lance brings a reluctant Kareem to the Stud Stable, the infamous strip club on the 2nd floor. Many surprises await them there, but the biggest surprise comes for Kareem after the end of the show.